


Tryst

by thesilvergoddess



Series: Songs of the New Gods [1]
Category: As Dead As Night, Songs of the New Gods - Selene D'Argent, World of Warcraft
Genre: AU, F/F, Pre-Series, Upcoming Series, WOW AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-04 00:12:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12759141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesilvergoddess/pseuds/thesilvergoddess
Summary: Maryn and Anna have been best friends for as long as they've known each other, but one night changes their lives forever.





	Tryst

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Light, Forsaken](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7858150) by [FreakshowImprov](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakshowImprov/pseuds/FreakshowImprov). 



> I'm afraid that AO3 is going to take my stuff down unless I do a lot of other stuff to keep it valid, so fuck me I guess.

Maryn yawned, stretched back with her arms in the air, and hunched back over her work, letting the sun warm her back. She didn’t really understand why the library didn’t have those thin marble windows. They would have let in plenty of light on their own without risking fading any texts or parchments or drying out the leather or crusting the bindings. But she wasn’t an architect, so who was she to say anything?

The Root sun radiated on her back, magnified by the windows, and Maryn was decidedly cozy in her little haven over her workstation. She’d been given her own study in the library’s back hall as a part of her graduation from her apprenticeship to becoming a priestess-in-training. Her mind started to wander, and she rustled herself, body sluggish like she was on the verge of dozing off. Which she was.

Fingers rested lightly on her back, and she snapped up, ready to get moving and acting like she was looking at some words  _ very _ closely rather than sort of cat-napping. Making a half-snore as she snapped up wasn’t the best way to convince anyone of her studiousness, though.

A familiar laugh wet her ears like fresh Root rain on budding plants after a long, cold Echo, and she turned with a grin. 

“It’s just  _ me _ , Red,” Anna laughed, her startlingly white teeth shining in the late afternoon light. “Why are you so jumpy? Up to something… sinister…?”

Maryn stuck her tongue out at her best friend. “Maybe. What illicit reasons bring you around?”

“General mayhem,” Anna replied smoothly. “Causing trouble since you never come see me anymore.”

Maryn frowned, prickling a bit at the jab. “I’ve been adjusting.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s been… what? Six months into our career tracks? I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m just a scribe, so I write shit down, and that’s about all I got.”

“That’s a bald-faced lie, and you know it.” She paused and then added, “And I’m adjusting!”

Maryn was having a little more difficulty than Anna getting used to her career track and her priestly duties. She wanted to be the best advocate for Nurture that she could be, but there was too much to deal with at any given moment for her to be a true acolyte. 

Anna waved a hand. “I know, Red. It’s been a few weeks since I peeked in on you, though, and I think I probably should more often if you’re going to be snoozing so much on the job.” A pause and a grin. “Slacker.”

Maryn couldn’t even try to stop the pout creeping up on her before it was already there. Anna laughed just like Maryn thought she would, and her frown deepened as she crossed her arms. It was an automatic response as much as anything, but it was annoying as hell how easily she blushed and could get wrapped around Anna’s finger. 

Anna pulled closer to the pouting Maryn, and Maryn got a full whiff of Anna’s spicy perfumes. She always smelled so exotic - like southern and eastern spices that cost more than just a pretty clip or two. She probably pilfered them off of a sad little traveling merchant with a wink and a smile, and Maryn sighed. Anna loved to hustle. 

“You’re  _ so _ grumpy,” Anna said, looking Maryn dead in the eyes. “You don’t get like this around the others. It’s kinda cute.”

Everything got quiet in the library, so quiet even that Maryn could only hear the breaths of her and Anna. Her eyes were dark honey-golden and shimmered with some kind of emotion Maryn couldn’t place. Maybe if she were a Caldwyn, she would be able to figure out all of the secrets in Anna’s head - all of her emotions and all of her thoughts and impressions. If she were someone else… she might be able to… 

Anna’s eyes grew wider and her lush green skin turned a shade darker across her nose and cheeks and in splotches down her neck and on what of her chest was exposed. Her fresh pixie cut framed her face in such a way to exaggerate those features, and Maryn could see, without moving her eyes too far, Anna’s long ears were tinted by the same splotchy blush that covered her face. 

She snatched back, looking away. “You know what… I just remembered. I have to do… something. Somewhere else. I think I hear my Elder calling.” She paused and quickly amended, “I’m going to lay down. See you at dinner. Bye.”

Maryn frowned as she watched Anna skitter off. It wasn’t so much a skitter as it was a leisurely swagger, but Maryn and Anna had been friends long enough for Maryn to recognize when Anna had been flustered and was retreating with her tail between her legs. This was one of those moments. 

Maryn watched as Anna practically ran off and sharply turned the corner at the end of the long hall leading away from the open library, and she turned back to her work confused and exasperated. Anna probably wouldn’t talk about her feelings ever, so there wasn’t much point in asking later. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to make Anna react so strongly, but there wasn’t much to do about it now. 

Anna had always been like that.

They’d been friends since childhood, but that didn’t mean that Maryn knew what was ever going on with Anna. Anna was incredibly closed except when she was joking, which Maryn discovered was the only time she would reveal anything sensitive about her life. She wasn’t a habitual liar, but there was a certain veneer that no one could scratch off or wear down, no matter how long they’d been around her. 

Maryn looked back down at the book on her table and sighed, jotting down a few last notes in the margins of her paper before snapping the tome closed and wandering around until she found exactly where she’d gotten it from - not that she’d forgotten. She was just thoughtless sometimes. 

She ambled back to her station and dusted off the desk before tucking her work into little cubbies and drawers built into the desk, pushing in the chair just before leaving. Walking down the arched corridors warmed her stiff bones, and she helloed a few passersby from other tracks that she knew their faces, if not their names. 

The dining hall would be full of people milling around, and Maryn sighed. She didn’t mean for time to get away from her, but it did, as usual. Sometimes, she would spend all day in the library with no concept of time passing except the hunger grumbles in her stomach. All things considered, she wasn’t the latest to dinner that she had been, but she  _ did _ hate waiting with everyone else. Besides, she really wanted to make sure that Anna was okay.

As she neared the hall, Maryn could hear a stream of voices bubbling from within, and she grimaced a bit, knowing that Gilwynne, June, and Anna would already be sitting around chewing the fat and eating whatever smelled so heavenly. 

Maryn never missed a meal, but she was frequently late. She  _ hated _ being late.

Minute after minute ticked by slowly until she received her open-top box of beef, onion, garlic, mushrooms, and carrots over rice, spiced with Southern spices and herbs, with a side of fruit that she’d read about on ledgers and that she’d called fairy-fruit, but it took well to the soil, so she supposed that farms would begin growing it and that she’d have to start learning the names of these new fruits. This one was called an… ananas? Maryn smiled at the word. It was a ridiculous word, but she’d write it down in a notebook with a short description as she was want to do with new things fairies brought to this world - not just fruits.

Maryn noticed she’d stopped walking to her friends’ table and zoned out while standing stock still, getting lost in thought again. It was… not a good habit, but everyone that knew her knew that she was prone to daydreaming very suddenly and had learned to roll with it. Some people said it was endearing. Others said that it was a detrimental annoyance.

Maryn blinked around and continued moving forward to her usual table where the grizzled Gilwynne, the dainty June, and the… absent Anna… should have been. 

Maryn clacked down her oak food box a little harder than necessary with a frown. One of her mushrooms jumped from her bowl and landed in the bottom of the tray.

“Yeah, she said she wasn’t feeling so great,” Gilwynne answered with a mouthful of food.

June nodded in agreement, chewing her food and swallowing before speaking. “Yes, Anna said she was unwell.”

“She came by the library earlier and left out of nowhere, but she said she’d be at dinner.”

Gilwynne shrugged and gnawed off what little meat was left on the bone of her pheasant. She had apparently opted for a more Northern-inspired food than Maryn had. 

Maryn found herself not that hungry after figuring out that Anna was more or less indisposed. She’d really wanted to make sure that she was okay, but now, she’d have to wait until June stopped picking at her food to not be rude in her leaving. She knew that she’d be hungry later, but that wouldn’t stop her stomach from having a steel wall preventing her from ingesting any more than she already had. 

The meal went slower than Maryn could have possibly predicted. Conversation was dull at best with Gilwynne and June talking only about work without Anna there to break up the flow. Anna would always push the conversation into new directions and keep them on their toes, but without her, all they had was caseloads. Anna pushed them into talking about the nitty gritty details that borderlined on security breach, but no one would do that of their own volition. Therefore, the conversation fizzled after a while, and they ate their meals in silence. 

Maryn left as soon as June put down her eating implements, which was still a little rude since she didn’t even wish them good evening.

She shoved her tray at the kitchen crew - something that she almost never did unless she was in quite a rush - and took off down the halls toward where she knew Anna’s quarters were. For such a massive group of people and network within Heirosol, the temple still did plenty to be able to accommodate their workers and acolytes with privacy in their lodging. In the younger years before Declaration of Alliance to one the Elder Gods, rescued children would often spend their days and nights together in large, open halls and open dormitories, which could be… very awkward when some of the residents decided to start “finding themselves” in the middle of the night. 

Maryn had declared allegiance to Nurture not long after exposure to all of the wonders that field of work contained, and she hadn’t regretted it one day… especially since she was able to move into her own quarters the day after her Declaration. 

Maryn found herself staring at Anna’s door and distracting herself from her actual goal in an effort to not deal with the problem, as she often did. 

_ Just do it, Maryn _ . 

And she did, for once in her goddamn life. 

Maryn reached up and rapped her knuckles on the modest oak door. 

Nothing happened.

Maryn frowned, her heart sinking. She didn’t know what to expect when she decided to come check on Anna, but she couldn’t shake that feeling that something she’d done had upset her. This was only serving to confirm those suspicions. 

She knocked again.

No answer. 

A few detectives-in-training passed behind her, laughing about something she was too distracted to hear. 

Maryn’s frown deepened, and she balled up her fist, banging on the door a few times. 

Still nothing. 

_ There’s no point in just standing around looking daft. _

Maryn agreed with herself and backed away, slinking down the halls to her own room. Being there alone wasn’t doing her any good, but it was too late to go out and hit the town but too early to sleep. Instead, she decided to sit at her desk and draw for a while, letting her mind blank and letting her hand move without much thought to what she was doing. 

She drew Anna’s bare back.

She closed the book. 

She went to bed.

She dreamed of Anna.

* * *

 

Maryn woke the next morning with a headache fit to kill a better person. She’d slept fretfully all night, plagued by dreams that she couldn’t control. She dragged herself out of bed and through her morning routine, but she could only stare blankly at her notes and wish the day was over. She had long hours ahead of her in the library, and all she could do was sit there and try to wait out the horrible banging inside of her head. 

It was stress… Probably. 

She  _ could _ go down to a clinician, or she could take care of her own damn headache, but that would require effort, and effort was the last thing she could afford for the time being. 

The light that streamed through the windows were muted with clouds, thank the goddesses, but still jabbed her painfully in both of her eyes.  

She eventually conceded to the migraine and went down the hall to the acolyte’s minor clinic where things such as headaches and other minor ailments were mended. They’d called it the Restoration Room, but Maryn had never fancied the name. 

Inside, Anna sat looking pale, jittery, and generally unwell. 

“Oh, Anna-”

Anna stood up and walked into one of the clinic office rooms and slammed the door behind her, and all Maryn’s brain could process was that she didn’t even get an announcement that the clinician was ready to see her. 

Maryn sat, befuddled and tired and more than ready to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but she couldn’t leave now. She was nearly frozen in place by the way Anna had reacted upon seeing her and hearing her. 

Above all else, she had a killer headache.

A few more days passed, no one seeing Anna for more than a fleeting second, but every one of those seconds, she looked pale and jittery and generally unwell.

* * *

 

Maryn got it in her head that she was going to go confront Anna that evening after dinner by bringing her dinner. Not the most confrontational beginning to a confrontation, no, but it would be effective. Anna must have been eating  _ something _ , but knowing Anna, Maryn knew that it was probably just fried crisps and apples. A real meal would do her good if she was actually sick. 

Maryn was starting to get the feeling that it was something that was eating at her rather than an actual illness, though. Anna had gotten sick from stress once before when she and Maryn had only been kids. She’d stolen some food to have extra later, and it ended up making her sick for days just because she couldn’t handle that she’d lied and stolen. When she  _ did _ confess to an Elder, the Elder only laughed gently and told Anna that she didn’t need to steal ever again because there was more than enough to go around - that all she ever had to do again was ask. 

Maybe all Maryn had to do was ask Anna what was wrong.

Maryn almost laughed at herself. This was  _ Anna _ she was thinking about. Nothing was ever that easy with Anna.

She’d all but ran out on Gilwynne and June who sat at the usual spot. They’d barely touched their food by the time Maryn had shoveled in the whole of hers, gone through the line again, and ran out with her own box for Anna. One of the kitchen staff had tried to offer to take it for Maryn, but she’d curtly refused. She wasn’t going to let anything keep her from going to see her friend. 

She’d turned corridor after corridor until she wound up standing in front of Anna’s door, her fingers stinging a little from rubbing the underside of the wooden box in anticipation. 

The door loomed before her, a silent sentinel of judgment and elm and wrought iron. 

Her stomach dropped when she reached out to knock, and she found herself trying to chew off her bottom lip. Butterflies assaulted her stomach like they were breaking a long siege battle by going in with force.  _ Why am I so nervous _ ?

She didn’t pause long enough to think about it more before she rapped her knuckles on the door a few times, balancing the wooden box of food in one of her hands. 

No response.

Maryn frowned, and those delicate butterflies in her guts started turning to stone. The warmth slipped from her like the sun had gone down behind a ridge of trees in the evening. Something was so very wrong with Anna lately that it seemed like her best friend of her whole life had just vanished overnight.

_ No, in the matter of a few hours. _

Maryn knocked again this time with the balled up side of her hand, banging a little louder and a bit more frantically.

No response.

Maryn gave it all of two seconds before slapping her palm against the door several times and yelling, “ _ Goddess _ , Anna! Just open the fucking door!”

Nothing.

Not even the sounds of someone rustling inside. 

Maryn slumped, resting her forehead against the doorframe. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong. She didn’t know-

“Maryn? What in the hell are you doing?”

Maryn wheeled around to find Anna looking at her curiously, amusedly, and a little bit angrily.

Maryn felt a flush consume her, making her want to die because of how stupid she probably looked to someone watching - to Anna. To the only person on the planet that she didn’t want to look stupid in front of.

“I… thought you were avoiding me,” she said and then added, “But then I thought you might really be sick, so I decided to bring you some food because you’re really bad at taking care of yourself when you’re on your own, and then, I thought that I might just bring it down here on my own, but then, I started knocking and you weren’t there, so I didn’t really know what to do, and I got scared that-”

“Hey, Red, it’s okay.” Anna smiled, but it wasn’t her usual full smile. It was a softer thing. Less of a teeth baring snarl filled with contempt and amusement and more of a genuine grin oozing with fondness and endearment. “Come on in. I’m starved.”

Maryn waited for Anna to push the door open on her own and noticed how she motioned before pushing the door open. Of  _ course _ Anna had put up wards. They were probably small things that would mostly just monitor who came in and out without her knowing, but it wasn’t a foolish thing by any means. Maryn had her own, but she forgot to activate them sometimes…

Maryn walked into the room that she’d never exactly been in before. It wasn’t like she hadn’t stopped by, but Anna was always quick to shut the door behind her and not linger around. Inside, Maryn could see why. Inside was a warm place - not physically warm because no room in the temple was unless you lit a fire or warmed yourself with charms - but a warm environment with rugs on the floor and lanterns hanging from the walls and ceiling that flickered to life as she walked into the room. The soft pink, blue, and purple glow lights made the stone room a little less harsh. Sheer curtains framed the only small window in the room, and a lavish comforter spread over the bed, which was overrun with pillows. 

Maryn caught Anna watching her with that same amused expression, and Maryn found herself frowning… again. “What?”

Anna shrugged, set her tray on her desk which sat directly under her window just like Maryn’s, and started eating as soon as she sat down. Maryn guessed she could sit on the bed, but something gnawed at her in the way Anna positioned herself toward her. It was a few minutes in when Maryn realized that Anna hadn’t once turned her back on Maryn. It was a small thing - an odd thing to notice, but Anna had always been vocal about not turning her back to people she didn’t trust.

“Okay, cut the shit, Anna. What’s going on?” Maryn rubbed her hands together and pinned them between her thighs. 

Anna munched thoughtfully for a moment and swallowed before holding her utensil to her lips a pause and replying simply, “I’ve been avoiding you.”

Maryn blinked. Anna was always forward in her own way, but this was a whole new level.

She plucked up her fruit with her hands and ate with a shit-eating grin on her face before licking her fingers clean. “Red, you went and stirred up some feelings that I know the Elders wouldn’t appreciate. I mean… I know there aren’t any rules saying we  _ can’t _ be together, but the implication that they don’t  _ want _ us to be together is pretty clear.”

Maryn’s brain hiccupped. “Wait… Did you just say that you’ve been avoiding because…”

“I mean, essentially, you gave me a massive boner the other day, and I didn’t really know what to do about it, so I was avoiding you. I’ve always thought you were cute, but like… we can’t actually do anything about it.” Anna shrugged and pushed her tray back before rethinking it and picking it up to place it outside the door. When she closed her door, she leaned against it and looked at Maryn with a kind of look that made Maryn uncomfortable. “I mean… avoiding you wasn’t going to keep working since like… you’re actually my only real friend in this place.”

Maryn didn’t respond, but the look on her face  _ must _ have been at least a  _ little _ chastising because Anna grimaced and came to sit beside her. 

“Gilwynne and June are great, but they haven’t been around as long as you have, and they don’t know me as well as you do, and I’m not super into letting them get into the fabric that much, you know?” She shot Maryn a smile so dazzling that it made Maryn begin to sweat. 

The butterflies started up again as Anna leaned in close and Maryn could smell the wonderful warm oils and spices on Anna’s soft skin. Her… very… soft… skin… 

Maryn swallowed too loudly to go unheard. 

“But I started thinking to myself. What if we just… gave it a shot? I mean, our hormones are raging, right? So if they ask us if we’re in a relationship, we can just say it was a night of passionate lovemaking and get on with it. We don’t… have to let them know, right?” Anna leaned a little closer, and the soft lights sparkled in her almond shaped eyes. 

Maryn opened her mouth but a breathy, shaky laugh came out. “Is… that what you want?”

Anna’s warm forehead touched Maryn’s, and she felt her heart skip a few beats, making her wonder just what kind of deal this was really going to be. If they  _ could _ stop just after once. Something told her no.

Anna’s breath was sweet against Maryn’s own skin. “Is that what  _ you _ want?”

Maryn’s mind crashed into waves of white noise with Anna that close to her. Part of her wanted to say something - anything. But all of her thoughts rushed toward her mouth so quickly and in such a high volume that she couldn’t say or do anything except sit there and stare at Anna, wide eyed and a little afraid of her proposition. Anna just waited patiently for a response, more patiently even than Maryn had ever seen. 

“Wh… what if this changes things between us?” Maryn breathed. When she blinked, her eyes stung from being frozen open and locked on Anna’s own eyes. 

Anna hesitated for a second, closing her eyes and wrinkling her perfectly smooth brow in a flicker of contemplation, before closing the small space between them. 

The warmth of Anna’s lips connected with Maryn’s, and Maryn remained frozen and crystallized in place, just like time itself. Everything and nothing whipped around in Maryn’s mind for the brief time their lips connected, and she could make out every detail of Anna’s kiss. The hesitation behind it. The worry that furrowed her brow just slightly. The slight shake of her breath through her narrow nose. The way she clenched her hands on her own lap to make them  _ not _ shake. 

She pulled back, looking down at Maryn’s hands. Maryn shifted to pose her body more toward Anna, folding one of her legs up under the other and reaching up, her fingers just barely brushing Anna’s forearm. Their faces were still close. Maryn was sure that Anna could feel the sweat on her fingertips and could tell that she was coming on as smooth as pumice stone, but goddess be damned, she was  _ trying _ . 

Anna still wouldn’t look at Maryn, choosing to look at where Maryn’s hand rested instead. Maryn reached up with her other hand and paused for a second just at Anna’s face before Anna leaned into the contact, eyes closed and eyebrows still knitted together. She was so… worried. 

“Anna, we don’t…” Her nerves were starting to get the better of her.

“Yeah, Red,” she smiled, eyes still closed. “But I already kissed you, so if we stopped now, that would make things  _ extra _ weird, right?”

That little question was a salve to the frayed emotions and nerves that plagued Maryn, and she leaned forward again. This time, a little too fast, and their noses bumped together, making her face sting and her eyes water. But they both laughed. 

“Let’s try that again?” Anna asked, reaching up to take Maryn’s face in both of her long-fingered hands.

Maryn couldn’t help the way her eyes fluttered open when Anna  _ really _ kissed her. She looked so much like she was trying to concentrate on a particularly difficult problem, and her movements were a little rigid. Maryn couldn’t criticize, though, since her only experiences were with a cheap book and a long, private bath. Anna pressed her lips against Maryn’s a little too firmly to be smooth, a little too rigidly and a little too fearfully, but she started to relax when Maryn didn’t push her away. Maryn wasn’t really sure what to do, so she just… went with it. 

She’d done plenty of reading. She was well past the Age of Declaration and old enough to buy a drink or any potion, but this was…  _ way  _ the hell out of her wheelhouse. 

She pulled Anna closer, but that made Anna falter to the side and nearly drag the both of them onto the bed longways across the short width, probably inevitably making Maryn bang her head on the wall and sending her unconscious. The two caught themselves with a little laugh and scooted closer, hand beginning to rove.

Anna was so… thin. Not scarily thin like she had been when they were children, but she hadn’t ever filled out. Maryn, on the other hand, had quite filled out, and in the back of her mind, she wondered how she felt to Anna. Warm, hopefully. Warm like the sun. Warm like the months after hard freezing where the sun blessed the grounds and encouraged new life. Warm like the spices and oils of the south that Anna liked to wear. Warm like Anna. 

Maryn felt her own hands creeping from Anna’s forearm and cheek to both cheeks then her shoulders then her cheeks again then her back then her shoulders again. She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, but she  _ did _ know that there was entirely too much of Anna to touch all at once, no matter how badly she wanted that. 

Anna’s hands wound up in Maryn’s messy, frizzled hair, interlocking and pulling her around for Anna to better kiss her. The pull did strange things to Maryn’s stomach, and her breath hitched on more than one occasion. 

Their pace was… inconsistent at best, but that only added to the excitement. Sometimes, one of them would move too quickly - plunge too deep into getting lost too quickly and the other would have to save them. 

Their breaths had already become panting gasps from roaming hands and increasingly wet kisses, but neither was certain how to proceed without being… too much. Anna was the first to pull at Maryn in a way that toppled the two of them onto the bed, Maryn over Anna, her weight on Anna’s slender frame. The two of them stopped for a long moment, and Maryn’s heart beat hard in her ears, almost blocking out the sounds of Anna’s shaking breaths. 

Anna looked small underneath her. She was a tall person, but she wasn’t very big in any other respect, and Maryn guessed that was because of her heritage. She’d never seen Anna this way, though. So vulnerable. So willing. So excited. So… afraid. 

Anna reached up and unclasped one of the pins holding Maryn’s robe over her torso, and it fell loosely open to reveal the only other clasp that preserved her from exposure above her waist. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen each other disrobed before, but this was a new kind of context, and Maryn was suddenly extremely self-conscious about nudity but let Anna continue to her other clasp. Her robe slid over her chest and onto Anna’s stomach, and Anna’s eyes sparkled with mischief. 

Maryn moved a little and realized that Anna’s robe had come up over her thighs quite far and felt herself hesitating. For a moment, Maryn felt locked into place, embarrassed and afraid and unblinking. Her blood turned to ice and froze her solid all the way through until Anna’s warm hands interlaced with Maryn’s, which were suspended in a panicky half-up position. Her warmth spread through Maryn and into her very soul enough for her to close her eyes and just  _ feel _ Anna beneath her. 

Wordlessly, Anna pulled Maryn into another kiss - long and slow but exuding excitement and anticipation. In a whirl, Maryn’s breath whooshed out of her as Anna flipped her onto her back and now leaned over her smiling. She weighed as much as a leaf. This time, Anna dipped down and planted her warm lips on Maryn’s neck, and a shiver coursed through her that went up her spine and came out of her mouth as a sigh. Anna’s soft lips parted against her skin, and she put her full weight onto Maryn, which still wasn’t much. She straddled Maryn, her lean legs squeezing her hips, and Maryn felt her own robe ride up with every small movement between the two of them. 

Their robes would definitely have to be washed. 

Anna moved with fluid grace so different from her jagged, rigid movements of before, and her fingertips traced over Maryn’s torso in mesmerizing nonsense patterns. Maryn’s eyes fluttered closed, and Anna’s warmth became her own, bubbling just under her sternum and coloring every sigh silver and gemstone. Maryn’s hands moved without her thinking about it and she pulled the ties holding Anna’s robe onto her body, and they fell to reveal a muscular, small breasted torso that was covered in white little scrapes of long ago. 

From her shoulders, Maryn pulled her hands over Anna's body to rest on her bony hips. Anna picked herself up just slightly and, in a motion Maryn couldn't quite pick out, pushed up Maryn’s robes and her own. A moment passed between them where their eyes met, and she leaned over to kiss Maryn sweetly. 

The kiss melted into so much more as their bodies connected again, this time so much more intimately, so much more  _ directly _ . Maryn groaned into Anna’s mouth and was met with a laugh that just came out in short huffs. Anna moved against her in short movements that interchanged with longer, slower ones, but her fingers dug into Maryn’s shoulders at random intervals. Maryn wanted Anna to be even closer to her. Anna’s forehead rested on Maryn’s, both of them slick with sweat, and neither directly looked at one another for more than a glance. 

Maryn’s insides were already on fire and every direct eye contact with Anna only drove her into more of a frenzy. Her free hands ran over Anna’s lean back and felt those little ropey scars all the way to her hairline. She still hand enough hair for Maryn to tangle her fingers in, so she did so and pulled Anna into one kiss after another, each deeper than the last. 

They couldn’t be vocal. 

Not here. 

But they did their best to stifle the would-be clues of their lovemaking in the form of sighs and desperate grasps and bitten lips. 

The rhythm was too good for Maryn to keep up for very long despite her efforts. She trembled underneath Anna’s delightful form and panted against her lips, blinking too rapidly and clutching Anna a little too hard. 

Anna was moving the same way, not quite rigidly but obviously swelling with more and more excitement in the way soft little “ah”s escaped from her lips. 

It wasn’t long before Anna heaved out a long sigh and moved more erratically, her soft sounds becoming a little louder than before. Her eyes squeezed closed, but then her gaze locked onto Maryn’s, who was already getting lost in a haze of calm right before going over the edge. That one look did it, and the two of them rocked together, grasping at one another like life rafts in the middle of a stormy sea. Panted, quiet swears crossed the small distance between them intermixed with their names, their selves pushing against one another in a tied battle of excitement and ecstasy. 

Anna collapsed directly onto Maryn, and Maryn lay there limp and unmoving like a ragdoll for a long moment before wrapping her arms around Anna’s small frame. 

They lie there for a time, silently holding one another and breathing heavily. 

Anna started giggling just a little, and Maryn scooched back and frowned. “Was I that bad?”

Anna shook her head and buried her head in Maryn’s neck. Her eyelashes tickled. “Let’s just go ahead and peel these clothes off and really get comfortable. Your brooch is digging into my stomach.”

Maryn smiled and shoved Anna off lightly, the two of them peeling off the remains of their robes and snuggling back down together. 

“You don’t have to go back to your room tonight, you know,” Anna said, her head on Maryn’s chest. 

Maryn didn’t say anything back for a minute. “What if they make rounds tonight?”

Anna scoffed. “They won’t. They never do. Rounds are a myth, and you know it.”

Maryn couldn’t argue with that. 

She let her fingers lazily graze over Anna’s skin. “I’ll stay on one condition.”

Anna looked up with her doe eyes. “What is it?”

Maryn sighed, knowing that the words would stain their moment together. “You have to promise me that this won’t change anything between us unless it’s for the better.”

Anna blinked and frowned. “Of course not, Red.”

Maryn nodded and pulled the covers up around her and Anna’s naked bodies. “In that case, I think I’m gonna get a nap before round two.”

Anna laughed and kissed Maryn’s chin. “Me too…”


End file.
